16 killed when new building collapses in Morocco: government

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2008

RABAT (AFP) — Sixteen people were killed and 30 injured when an apartment block being built in Morocco collapsed, Communications Minister Khalid Naciri said Thursday, raising the casualty toll.

"The government presents its condolences to the families of the 16 victims of the collapse of a building in Kenitra," Naciri told journalists following a cabinet meeting the day after the accident.

The MAP news agency had initially reported that 14 people died and 26 were injured, giving a provisional toll from Wednesday morning's tragedy on the site of the two-storey housing and shopping centre.

Rescue workers were still digging through the rubble Thursday in the Hay Oulad Waj district of Kenitra, 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the capital, and Naciri said the...